


kiss me (in the candlelight)

by Bugggghead



Series: Bughead Drabbles & One Shots [31]
Category: Archie Comics, Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Power's out, VERY well, and bughead are neighbors, but maybe they will soon, day 5: coment, movie watches, who don't know each other well yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 08:37:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16950636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bugggghead/pseuds/Bugggghead
Summary: Jughead asks his neighbor Betty for candles and a blanket when the power goes out, but she suggests they share.





	kiss me (in the candlelight)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eventyyr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eventyyr/gifts), [theheavycrown](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theheavycrown/gifts).



> So I am nothing if not verbose and somehow these little drabble prompts turned into like 3k and a full one shot. Whoops! Hope you all don’t mind! 
> 
> Thanks so much to both @theheavycrown and @eventyyr for sending them in and thanks to @lovedinapastlife for betaing this and @jandjsalmon for your lovely thoughts, suggestions, and support. ALSO - thanks to @milkshakesandmurders and @noorakardemmomesaetre for being such amazing cheerleaders. I love you all! 
> 
> theheavycrown said:  
> For the holiday song prompts! “I’ll keep you warm until winter goes away.” and I'm combining with a prompt I saw on those Winter Writing Prompts from the blog - the power goes out in our apartment building, but i’m not prepared for this, and you come to check on me. SO CUTE.
> 
>  
> 
> eventyyr said:  
> “I’ll keep you warm until winter goes away.” for the prompts!
> 
> theheavycrown said:  
> "You get the candles, I'll grab the blankets."

"You get the candles, I'll grab the blankets."

 

“Uhhh.”

 

“Oh, right. Sorry. Of course, you don’t know where they are. Just hold on,” she calls over her shoulder as she rummages through the hall closet. “You know, this would be so much easier if I could-” She’s cut off as a light from behind floods the tiny closet. The heat from his body, pressing very close to hers in the cramped space is making her head spin.

 

“Here you go.” His words are soft, quiet as his breath tickles the loose tendrils of hair that have escaped her ponytail and the hand holding his phone hovers over her shoulder. His voice is deeper than she remembers. Not that they’ve talked much. Save for the occasional ‘hi’ and ‘your mail wound up in my box’ conversations that are typical of people living in such close proximity to one another, she realizes they haven’t ever really spoken at all.

 

“Thank you,” she breathes as her fingers curl around an especially large blanket on the very top shelf. Betty tugs it down and grabs a smaller one for good measure. While yes, she can and should openly admit he’s incredibly handsome, at least to herself, she’s never been the presumptuous type and a mid-winter powerless night shouldn’t change that. But a small part of her, one she’s not even consciously considering, has the fleeting thought that body warmth is far more effective than any material can provide. 

 

“My pleasure.” Those two words send a shiver up her spine, the small hairs on her neck standing on end as he exhales in time with the breath she takes in response. “Sorry, I didn’t mean… uh. I didn’t mean it to come off as creepy as I’m sure it did. I’m not-”

 

“It’s okay.” Betty can feel her lips curving up at the edges, thankful that she’s still facing the closet so the warmth seeping onto her cheeks isn’t visible. “Candles. You uh, you asked for candles. Follow me?”

 

He can’t seem to speak, his previous bumbling ineptitude still fresh in his mind. The close quarters aren’t helping either. But he does as she asks, nodding and turning his phone so the flashlight illuminates the small kitchen as she pads over and pulls open a drawer. She’s beautiful. Not that he hasn’t noticed that the few times they’ve crossed paths. She’s also an ideal neighbor: keeps to herself, never makes noise after ten pm, doesn’t seem to have many people come and go, and every great once in a while, he can smell the fragrant air of chocolate chip cookies in the hallway when he comes home. He’s gathered that she goes to Colombia from a piece of mail that had somehow been deposited in his mailbox despite it clearly saying 4A and not 4B as his apartment door reflected. But past that, he doesn’t know much else.

 

“Found them.” There’s a little gleam in her eye that he chocks up to the prospect of a steady stream of light in their near future despite the lack of illumination in the typically bright city. “You can stay if - if you want.” She hates the way her voice raises an octave with the last word, betraying the nerves she’s trying so hard to hide. It’s not that he makes her uncomfortable, simply nervous, as if she’s forgotten how to carry on a simple conversation solely because he just so happens to be attractive  _ and  _ in her apartment for the very first time.

 

He angles his phone again as she winds around the counter and into the living room. It isn’t a long walk, all of three steps, but she tries to control her breathing as she moves dangerously close to him before making her way to the couch. “Are you sure?”

 

The sound of his boots against the hardwood floors is foreign to her, heavy and thudding as he takes a few steps and the light from his phone grows closer. With the blankets tossed on the couch, Betty lights a candle and places it on the table. “Well, I only have two candles and I don’t know how long we’ll be without power. They’re also only tealight candles with a maximum lifespan of like six hours so I don’t want to use them both at once. If I give you one, we’re only getting a few hours a piece. That just doesn’t make much sense. Considering it’s only nine pm now, these should last until at least one or two and-” she stops, meeting his gaze as she settles on the couch. “I sound crazy, don’t I? Sorry.”

 

“Don’t be,” he says simply, laughing a little before taking a seat about a foot away. He reaches for a blanket, the smaller of the two, she notes, despite him clearly being taller than her, and tosses it over his knees. “I’d like to stay if that’s still alright.” She nods in response and he feels the need to fill the impending silence. “I’m Jughead, by the way. And you are Elizabeth, right?”

 

“Yeah, yes. I am. Well, Betty really, but Elizabeth by birth.” She clears her throat, still embarrassed from rambling on about the lifespan of a tealight candle while simultaneously inviting her handsome neighbor to wait out the blackout with her. Her mother had always taught her to be just a little bit more prepared than most. ‘ _ Ten minutes early means on time, Elizabeth.’ ‘Always keep an extra blouse in your car, you never know when you’ll need it, Elizabeth.’ _ Naturally, over the last few years since she’d left home, those tendencies to be over-prepared bled into the life she’d made on her own. Betty kept extra batteries at the top of her closet, dried milk in her cupboard, and extra sheets in a trunk at the end of her bed for all of those ‘just in case’ scenarios. But it seems to be paying off since she’s even kept candles tucked into a drawer despite not having a single thing to use them for in her entire apartment. She’s the poster-child for caution, for never taking any risks, even if she doesn’t care to admit it.

 

Silence fills the room, hanging heavy between them as she watches his eyes bounce around her small apartment. She wonders if his looks anything like hers, if maybe it’s a mirror image with his things adorning the walls, filling the corners. 

 

“How long have you lived here?” he asks, his eyes lingering over the shelves of books on the far wall.

 

“About two years. My friend’s father owns the building and when I told her I was going to college in New York, she insisted I stay here. She’s over on the west coast with her boyfriend, Archie. We all went to the same high school but when we graduated, his head was in the clouds and he was convinced he was going to make it big.” She laughs then, reminiscing about the night after graduation when they’d told her their ‘grand plan’ to move to LA and hit it big in the music industry. “I thought they were crazy, truth be told, but they’ve proven me wrong. Veronica’s pretty well connected and they were signed to a recording deal about a year ago. Serves me right for doubting them. Veronica is and always has been a force to be reckoned with.”

 

“It sounds like you miss them.” He hadn’t missed the wistful lilt laced through her voice. And when he glances over at her, the far-off look in her eyes confirms his suspicions.

 

“I do. Every day. Do you know many people in the city?”

 

“Not really. I’m your typical loner weirdo. I have friends back home but I just transferred to NYU last semester so I’m still adjusting.”

 

“Do you want to watch something?” 

 

“Doesn’t that require power?” 

 

“Did your phone require power?” she counters, the edges of her lips curling upward, one brow arched in his direction. 

 

“Touche.”

 

Using the flashlight on her own phone, she wanders back into her room and unplugs her laptop. Being the ever prepared person that she is, it’s been charging since she’d arrived home and with the screen dimmed, it should hold the battery long enough to watch at least one, if not two, movies before inevitably powering down. 

 

“We don’t have a lot of options,” she says as she sits on the couch, leaning forward to deposit her laptop on the table. “We’ll have to agree on something I already have downloaded. What kind of movies do you like?”

 

“What a loaded question! That’s like asking what kind of books I like. Do I really look like the type to confine myself to something as restrictive as genre labels?” She goes to open her mouth, but he cuts her off, “Nevermind. Don’t answer that.”

 

She laughs then, a melodious sound bouncing around the small apartment. “What are our options?” He leans forward, too, very well aware of exactly how close his elbow is to hers as he peers at the screen and reads the titles. 

 

“Anything you see,” she says, scrolling through the folder with her saved movies.

 

They settle on Rebel Without A Cause and are leaning back on the couch again before the opening credits fill the screen. This time she’s leaning a bit more toward the middle, her fingers toying with the edges of the blanket.

 

They’re well into the movie when he shifts, pulling the small blanket upward to his shoulders. It’s not even large enough to reach the floor and she laughs a bit as she watches him struggle to cover himself completely. 

 

“What? It’s cold and you’re the one who gave me this flimsy thing.”

 

“Here,” she offers, but he doesn’t move. He  _ is  _ cold, and the blanket he has is nowhere near an adequate size to actually warm him up, but sharing a blanket with feels like a strangely intimate task. He’d be even closer, even  _ more _ tempted to blur the lines of friendly neighbors. But it looks warm, and she’s smiling, and her fingers brush against his as he grabs the corner of the one she’s been using, telling himself it’s simply for warmth. “We can share. It’s only going to get colder, Jug.”

 

“Oh, are we on a nickname basis already, Betts?”

 

She laughs again and he’s now determined to make her repeat that sound as often as possible for the rest of the night. 

 

“I guess so,” she quips, shifting again to spread the blanket over them both. “Now, shh. Watch the movie, Juggie.” The sickeningly sweet quality of her voice has him smiling as he takes the blanket and moves a little in her direction. 

 

Another half hour passes before he finally gives in to his baser instincts, shifting closer still until his knee bumps hers. “Is this okay?” he whispers, peering over to judge her reaction.

 

It may be the soft glow of the screen, or the candles, or even his own imagination, but he thinks he sees a small blush as she simply nods before turning back to the screen. Only a few more minutes pass when he feels her shoulder lean on his. 

 

“You’re so warm,” she mumbles, and he considers it as much of an invitation as he needs before tossing his arm back on the couch and tilting his head to the space he’d just created. 

 

“I’ll keep you warm until winter goes away,” he muses, wishing for a split second that he could cram each word back into his mouth. But as soon as she leans over and his arm wraps around her shoulder, the smile he can see playing at the edges of her lips tells him she doesn’t seem to mind.

 

By the time the credits scroll across the screen, they’re huddled together under the massive blanket, the smaller one laying discarded on the couch. She’s tucked into his side, his arm slung around her shoulders holding her to him. “Another one?” she asks.

 

“Sure, your choice this time.”

 

She selects a movie he finds a bit surprising and can’t help the words that spill, unfiltered from his lips. “I didn’t think you were An American Werewolf kind girl.”

 

Betty smiles as she leans back into his side. “That’s where you’re wrong, Juggie,” she whispers, pulling the blanket back over them both before the cold has time to spoil their little spot of warmth. “I’m all about the beast within. She can feel his chest rise and fall as a light laugh escapes him and her grin grows wider in response.

 

She’s feeling bolder as the movie plays through the first scene and she readjusts her legs to the side, leaning more fully into him. “Is this okay?” she echoes his earlier sentiment and he nods, clearly catching the reference.

 

“I love this movie,” she murmurs a few scenes later, twisting her neck as she speaks. He looks down at her, and for an instant, she swears he’s going to lean down and kiss her. Not that she’d mind. She absolutely wouldn’t. She’s been trying her hardest to curtail her heart from beating wildly as she sits beside him. Maybe it’s because she’s been single for so long, so solely focused on her goals and future that she’d passed on every opportunity to socialize like a typical college student. Or maybe it’s the undeniable chemistry they seem to have, the way his lips tilt at the corners when she jests, the way his fingers have been tracing circles into her shoulder since this movie began. But no matter what the cause of her fleeting desire to press her lips to his, all he does is smile and turn back to the movie.

 

They whisper back and forth as the movie plays on the table in front of them, his breath hot against the shell of her ear as he speaks and she tries her hardest to maintain a clear head. It’d be so easy to get caught up in the magic of the candles and the warmth of his embrace, so easy to fall into him, but the rational part of her brain tells her that’s a terrible idea. He is her neighbor, after all, and a one-night fling under the guise of a power outage isn’t quite enough to tempt her from her more rational tendencies. Instead, she gives into the warmth and cuddles up to his side to soak in the commentary and enjoy his company.

 

The telltale sign of the orange flickering light on her laptop signals her laptop’s soon to be demise. All she does is lean forward and close the notification before immersing herself in his warmth to ride out as many scenes as they can before it inevitably dies.

 

They’re one scene from the end when the ‘powering down’ notification forces their attention away from the screen. It’s decidedly dimmer as she sucks in a breath and meets his gaze. 

 

“Thank you,” he whispers, the weight of the darkness making the moment feel almost fragile.

 

“For what?”

 

“For tonight.”

 

“Any time,” she finds herself saying. It’s breathier than she’d intended, but as firm as she can seem to muster as she feels herself drifting closer.

 

“Be careful what you wish for.” His voice is soft, tender, a sliver of self-deprecation mixed with raw honesty evident in his tone.

 

“I know what I said. And I mean it, Jug. Any time.” This time when she says the same two words they’re slower, more deliberate, her voice curling around each syllable as he leans down a fraction of an inch. 

 

“I just might take you up on that.” He can’t imagine a world in which someone like Betty Cooper, the beautiful blonde neighbor who wakes up early and bakes cookies for fun in her free time would want anything to do with someone like him. A kid from the wrong side of the tracks who had to go to community college first before securing enough in scholarships to afford a university. A kid with far more enemies than friends. A kid who looks to be the exact opposite of what he assumes her type would be. His thoughts are interrupted when she speaks again.

 

“What?” she asks after a long pause, her eyes skating over his features. He simply shakes his head, a slight twitch from one side to the other before she speaks again. “Jug, what is it?”

 

Whether it’s the intoxicating scent of her perfume filling his senses or the way the candlelight flickers in her bright green eyes he’ll never know, but something surges in him as he closes the small gap between them, pressing his lips to hers, swallowing the small gasp that escapes as she opens her lips to deepen the kiss. 

 

One hand comes up to cup her cheek, his fingertips sinking into the soft flesh at the base of her neck as he tilts her head and shifts them both. They break for short breaths between kisses, their tongues tied in the languid dance of their lips. Betty pulls back, opening her eyes to meet his and for a single second in time he thinks he’s made a huge mistake. He thinks he’s made her uncomfortable and worries for only an instant that he’d crossed a line she hadn’t wanted to. But as she sits up and turns toward him, she swings one leg over him and settles on his lap. “Hi,” she whispers, a smile twisting on her lips as her palms press into his shoulders. His hands grip her waist as he breathes, “hi,” back before kissing her again.

 

Whether it’s the magic of the City of Lights going dark for a few stolen hours or something simpler - what some would call fate - some force brought Jughead to Betty’s door that night in search of candles and a blanket. As his lips trail down the column of her neck and she moans softly in response, he’s pretty sure he knows exactly how they’ll stay warm the rest of night.

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo... what'd you think?!
> 
> (i seriously thought about giving it a bit of a smutty turn but alas, i refrained!)
> 
> Come find me on tumblr @bugggghead!
> 
> Comments ALWAYS appreciated (even though I am notoriously bad at replying, I promise I read each and every one of them over and over again.)


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